Japanese businessman in Jersey tells of his anxious wait for news
Saturday 12th March 2011
A Japanese businessman visiting Jersey for work has told of his anxious wait for news from family and friends back home after one of the world’s biggest earthquakes struck the country yesterday morning.
Shinobu Miyata heads the Tokyo office of the Jersey-based company Moore Management and has been in the Island for two weeks when the earthquake, which measured 8.9 on the Richer scale, struck.
He managed to speak to his wife in Tokyo at around 6. 30am Jersey time for a few minutes but spent the rest of the day unable to get through because the phone lines were jammed.
Difficult
‘I was lucky to get through because it was difficult to get through to central Tokyo,’ he said.
‘My apartment is slightly out of the centre of Tokyo and it is OK and my family, including my parents, are all fine.’
‘My eldest daughter, who had gone to school by train can’t get home because all the trains have been stopped so the school have decided to keep all the students there for the time being.’
The earthquake which is thought to be one of the worst ever recorded struck about 250 miles off Japan’s north-east coast and sent a massive tsunami crashing into coastal areas of Japan and the Pacific ocean with hundreds feared dead.
Three hours after making contact with his wife, Mr Miyata, who was due to fly home today, tried to call her again but couldn’t get through. He later received an email form her reassuring him that the family are all safe.
‘Being away from my home town is hard-I have no information on how my family and colleagues are,’ he said. ‘All I can do is find out how they are doing but I don’t want to make any unnecessary telephone calls because that could cause more problems for the infrastructure.
‘Of course I know they are scared as when you get a big tremor it can be scary. But they seem to be managing at the moment and are looking after each other.’
Contacting the Moore office in central Tokyo, which does not have any staff form Jersey, had also proved difficult with both Mr Miyata and others in Jersey trying to get through but without success.
‘They have evacuated,’ said Mr Miyata, himself no stranger to earthquakes as Japan experiences around 1, 000 tremors a year.
‘In Tokyo we regularly have tremors and we are always prepared for the earthquakes every single day. We are trained that when an earthquake happens we get under the tables and then get out.
‘But I did mange to speak to a colleague and the feedback from her was that she was making her way back home on foot.’
Nuclear
He added: ‘Most of the buildings seem to be OK but there are reports that the Tokyo Stock Exchange buildings do have some damage, cracks and other things. Most of the services like water and electricity seem to be safe, although there are also worries about nuclear power stations.
‘We had another big earthquake twice or three times recently and even those areas are still suffering after the loss of houses, buildings and infrastructure.
‘It is going to take much more effort and it will take time but we will have to overcome it. I hope my family and all the people are safe. We have to recover.’
Jersey Evening Post, March 12, 2011 – page 9.
PR-120311.pdf